TUSCOLA WORK PARTY MEETING

The March meeting is dedicated to the resurrection of a fine ultralight at the Tuscola airport, Gary Buck’s Phantom.  It needs some tubes and landing gear repairs that will be much easier with a few helping hands.   Several of our members hangar there, and you can see a number of interesting aircraft.

The next meeting of Illini Skyriders will be held this Saturday, March 18 at the Tuscola Airport.   Plan to begin about 1:00PM.  Bring a warm jacket if
needed but we will have heat in the workspace if necessary.   With good weather there will be some flying.  By about 5:00PM, participants will decide which of several nearby restaurants we will chose for dinner.

ILLINOIS ULTRALIGHT SEMINAR

The 26th Annual Illinois Ultralight & Light Plane Safety Seminar held in Springfield on February 25 was a big success.  A lot of our members attended.  One of the indoor displays was a bare airframe of a Challenger provided by club Vice-Pesident Mick Schumacher.  They had some very good seminars including one on Rotax engines and on the new Sport piIot regulations. We also got to meet old flying friends from around the state of Illinois.

FEBRUARY MEETING REPORT

The February 18 meeting of Illini Skyriders was held at the Red Wheel Restaurant in Rantoul Illinois.  There were 12 members present. The meeting
was called to order at 7:35PM by president Richard Davis.   The treasurer Lea Amdor reported we have 16 paid members and a current balance of
$1.475.00.  The March meeting was set to be a hangar work-party at the Tuscola airport.

New member Greg Sempsrott provided copies of an excellent article about transition to Sport Pilot.   Also a plan to get updated profiles and pictures
for the web site.  We discussed the upcoming ultralight seminar in Springfield.  Dan Grunloh showed parts from his worn out gearbox.  Also announced
Dan is the first in the club to pass the Sport Pilot knowledge test (with Curt Shoaf following within a few days).

BROKEN NOSE GEAR AND ICE PELLETS

On Saturday afternoon March 4, a loose formation of ultralights passed over my farm going north.  I'm so accustomed to having visitors at my strip that I walked out of the barn to see who it was.  The planes were too high and I couldn't recognize anyone.  Later that afternoon just before sunset they returned.  This trim low enough to recognize a Kolb, Challenger and trike flown by Mark Anliker, Tom McQuinn and Raymund Theron (respectively).

They had flown up to Curt Shoaf’s place near Crescent City for a visit.  Due to his unfamiliarity with the layout, Tom’s Challenger suffered damaged to
the nose gear that required some extensive repairs.  Thankfully Curt had on hand suitable materials and tools to repair the plane.

I wish I had been ready to fly but only got my trike back together late that afternoon.  Bad weather was coming on Sunday in the form of rain and
possible snow.   I wanted to test out my newly overhauled engine that had only been run for 10 minutes thus far.

Early Sunday morning provided a narrow window for flight.  I checked the weather radar and took off for a short test flight with clear sky still showing
to the east.  The engine ran fine and the trike flew fine and the engine temperatures were fine.  I kept a close eye on the dark clouds off to the west.
Two miles south at Bayles Lake and couldn't resist flying past Raymund’s house just in case he was up.   When rain clouds suddenly appeared about
two miles away, I hurried back home for a quick landing.

As the door closed on the hangar, ice pellets or snow pellets began to fall on the roof.  It continued for about 30 minutes and gradually changed to all snow.  By late morning we had a significant accumulation of snow.   Later that day I could hardly believe I had flown that same day in mild winds and partly cloudy skies.  I did have a windshield on my trike, but the ice pellets would have been very bad for my prop.

TIME IS RUNNING OUT

Time is running out for those who want to get easily available ultralight training.  At the end of this year, the number of available instructors will decrease with the change in the regulations.  Starting next year most students will have to travel farther to find an instructor.  Time is running out for 2-place ultralights.  At the end of next year they must be registered with N-numbers, or grounded, or converted somehow to one-seat ultralights.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

March 18 Illini Skyriders work-party meeting at Tuscola Airport
April 4-10  Sun-N-Fun Fly-in at Lakeland Florida
April 15  Illini Skyriders meeting and first fly-in of 2006
June 17  Ilini Skyriders Fly-in and meeting Busbooms airstrip?
June 23-25  Annual SAA fly-in at Frasca Field Urbana, IL
July 24-30  AirVenture 2006 at Oshkosh Wisconsin
August 19  Illini Skyriders Fly-in at Hank Perry airstrip St Joseph, IL